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Occhi di bue

I tend to divide the things I love about Rome
into two categories: there are the big things, the obvious things, like the
fact that I live down the street from St. Peter’s, and that the Coliseum and
Spanish Steps are just a few subway stops away. Then there are the smaller
things, which are part of my daily routine in Rome; going to the outdoor market
in Testaccio* on the weekend, trying out a new restaurant that’s supposed to
have great amatriciana, or stopping
by one of my favorite bakeries (pasticcerie)
in the morning.

Ah, the pasticceria.
The bakeries in Italy have something special about them, a paradise of biscotti,cannoli, and tarts that lend themselves to various occasions. They
are where you get your cappuccino and cornetto*
in the morning - they can be depended on for an afternoon pick me up if you
need something sweet - they are happy to provide you with a fancy cake for a
birthday or any other special occasion - and they are ideal if you need to
bring dessert to a dinner party, allowing you to mix and match a little tray of
sweets for your guests. There are a few great pasticcerie in my neighborhood (you can read about one of themhere)
and I take full advantage of
their many purposes as needed.

Though every pasticceria is slightly different, there tends to be certain sweets
that are fixtures, and can be found in most any of them. This includes mini
fruit tarts, cannoli, chewy hazelnut cookies called brutti ma buoni (recipe forthcoming), and the subject of today’s
post, occhio di bue.

Occhio
di bue (which means bulls-eye in Italian – just what
the finished product looks like) are my go to treat for an indulgent breakfast
or snack in Rome. They are quite simple – just crunchy sweet pasta frolla* that sandwiches a generous
amount of Nutella – but this is precisely why they are so good. After all, you
can’t really go wrong when Nutella, cookies, and a dusting of powdered sugar is
involved, right? Since this type of cookie seems to be hard to come by in the
U.S, I wanted to provide you all with a recipe so you can have your own Italian
pasticceria experience at home. Note
that you can also use your favorite jam as a filling for these instead of
Nutella – apricot jam is the most common jam used in these cookies in Italy.

OCCHIO DI BUE

Ingredients:

2
3/4 cups flour

10
tablespoons sugar

1/4
teaspoon salt

5
tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1
whole egg

2
egg yolks

1
teaspoon vanilla

Water,
if needed

Nutella or your favorite jam

Directions:

In
a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter and mix at low
speed using electric beaters until the butter breaks in to small pieces –
alternatively, you can also mix in the butter using your fingers until it is
broken in to small pieces and well incorporated in to the flour and sugar
mixture.

In
a separate bowl, combine the egg, egg yolks, and vanilla, and lightly beat with
a fork. Add to the flour mixture and stir everything together with a wooden
spoon until a dough begins to form. Depending on the size of the eggs you use,
you may find that the dough seems too dry (this is almost always the case for
me when I make these). If your dough seems too crumbly for cookie dough, add some
water 1 tablespoon at a time until it becomes smooth and you can form a ball
with the dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead
for a few minutes. Wrap the dough in parchment paper and chill in the
refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat
the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease a baking sheet. On the same work surface
using a rolling pin (do add a little more flour to both the work surface and a
dusting to the rolling pin to prevent sticking) roll out the cookie dough until
it is 1/4 inch thick. Use a large cookie cutter, about 2 ½ inches wide in
diameter, to cut out 28-32 circles from the dough. Next, use a smaller cookie
cutter, about 1 inch in diameter, to cut the center out of half of the circles
of dough (these will be the tops of the cookies). You can either use the little
circles that you cut out to form another ball of dough to be rolled in to more
cookie tops and bottoms, or you can bake them and make miniature sandwich
cookies later on.

Transfer
the cookie bottoms and tops to the prepared baking sheet and bake them for 10-12
minutes on a lightly greased baking sheet. The cookies are done when they no
longer feel dough-y and are lightly browned on the bottom.

Let
the cookies cool completely. Dust the cookie tops with powdered sugar. Fill the
solid circles with either jam or Nutella and sandwich with a cookie top to form
the occhio di bue. Makes 14-16 cookies, depending on how big the cookie cutter
you use is.

*Historically, Testaccio was one of Rome’s
working class neighborhoods, but has since transformed into a neighborhood well
known for its restaurants and nightlife.

*Cornetti are an Italian pastry very similar
to the French croissant, but sweeter less buttery. A cornetto
paired with a coffee or a cappuccino is the typical Italian breakfast. Cornetti can be semplici (plain) or filled with jam, Nutella, cream. There are also
cornetti integrali which are made
with wheat flour and filled with honey.

*Pasta
frolla is the basic pastry dough used in Italian cuisine. It can be used as
it is here to make cookies, or with slightly altered quantities can also be
used to make dough for a tart or pie.